Vandana Kumar
Vandana Kumar is the Publisher and CEO of India Currents, the leading digital platform for Indian Americans in the United States. As a new immigrant, she co-founded India Currents in 1987, publishing an award-winning print magazine for over three decades before transitioning it to a fully digital format in 2018.
A recognized leader in ethnic media, Vandana has received numerous accolades, including the Asian American Hero Award from the County of Santa Clara and the Leadership in Business Award from the California State Legislature Assembly, which she has won twice. In 2024, under her leadership, India Currents was honored with the Community Impact Award by the Asian American Journalists Association.
Vandana currently serves on the Board of the California News Publishers Association. She is also a Knight Fellow and an AAJA Simon and June Li Leadership Transformation Fellow for the Media Transformation Challenge, reflecting her dedication to innovation and sustainability in journalism. More by Vandana Kumar
Vijay Rajvaidya
Vijay Rajvaidya is a veteran of the high-tech and Information Technology industry of Silicon Valley. Vijay has an MBA in Finance from Santa Clara University and multiple degrees in engineering. He has 30 years of experience in global marketing and sales.
Passionate about India’s rich culture, heritage, and civilizational history, Vijay is walking through all 12 Shiv temples (Jyotirling Temples) in India, a walk longer than 6,000 miles, replicating the journey of Sri Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century. He is also visiting rural high schools during his walk to promote the Literacy Project “Each One, Teach One” of Rotary India.
Vijay is a theater actor, a pilot, a mountaineer, and a certified scuba diver. More by Vijay Rajvaidya
Jayashree patil
Jayashree Patil is deeply interested in Media, Marketing, and Social Media. Jayashree Patil currently works as a “Social Media Evangelist” at Digite Inc.
In 2006 she started a South Asian Magazine Nirvana Woman addressing Fashion, Lifestyle, and Issues facing South Asian women in America. As the CEO of the magazine, she worked with various media agencies in Los Angeles and New York. She has a deep interest in South Asian Media and is involved with a lot of South Asian organizations. She is a founding member of the India Community Center and was on its board for the first 12 years. She volunteers at Foundation for Excellence to improve its social media presence.
She would like to contribute to South Asian Media in the coming years and continue her philanthropic work.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nirvanawoman1/ More by Jayashree patil
Sandy Close
Sandy started her career covering China and Vietnam as an editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review in the mid-1960s. She became editor of Pacific News Service in 1974 and was a pioneer in developing youth media. In 1996, she founded New America Media, the first and largest collaboration of ethnic news organizations. Her work has received several awards, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” and the 2011 Polk Award for Career Achievement. In 1996, a film she co-produced, Breathing Lessons, won an Academy Award for best short documentary. She founded Ethnic Media Services in 2017 to continue her work amplifying and elevating the voices of ethnic media. More by Sandy Close
Jaya Padmanabhan
Jaya Padmanabhan is editor emeritus, contributing writer, and board member of India Currents.
She is a veteran journalist, essayist, and fiction writer with over 250 published articles and short stories. She has received 25 awards for journalism and 8 awards for fiction, most notably the San Francisco Press Club’s Overall Excellence Award three times and the Lorian Hemingway Award for short fiction.
Her columns and articles can be found in India Currents, PBS Next Avenue, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Standard, Forbes, The Bold Italic, and Elemental.
Find out more at http://jayapadmanabhan.com/ More by Jaya Padmanabhan